


Phone Call

by clouds_sanctuary



Category: Wayne (TV 2019)
Genre: Gen, Phone Calls & Telephones, Prison, Swearing, spoilers for last episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28499238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clouds_sanctuary/pseuds/clouds_sanctuary
Summary: Wayne gets a phone call from his cousin.Takes place after Episode 10.
Relationships: (mentioned) - Relationship, Wayne McCullough/Del Luccetti
Comments: 9
Kudos: 9





	Phone Call

_The first time Wayne met her, he couldn’t have been older than five. He could barely say her name._

_“That’s your cousin Hayley,” came his mother’s voice, pointing at the munchkin of a girl peering at him, little fingers balling up the fabric of her shirt. Maureen was still around, at least for now. “Say hi to your cousin.” The first thing Wayne noticed was that she didn’t look like him. At all._

_Her skin resembled that caramel drizzle stuff his mom favored on her ice cream, but he couldn’t make out the color of her eyes—if she even had any. They were two wide black pools staring into his soul, though dissimilar to pure darkness. Her hair reminded him of a giant round pillow, curls and coils bunched up together to create the fluffy mass that currently sat atop her head. In her earlobes were small diamonds._

_She looked different. But it didn’t strike him as bad._

_A moment of pause. “Hi, Lee…ha…” he murmured out, eyes momentarily breaking contact with dark eyes before they focused again._

_“Hayley.” His mother again. “C’mon, Hay-ley. Say it right. You can do it.”_

_The name was foreign on his tongue, first syllable choking him up while the second one had an easier time. “Hh…ley…ah.”_

_Maureen shook her head in annoyance, though it was quickly replaced with an apologetic expression when she looked back to Hayley. “Sorry, sweetie, sometimes he just don’t say things right. He’ll figure it out, pro'ly when he’s older.”_

_Hayley just nodded, eyeing Wayne again. Maureen had turned back to whoever she was talking to, some family member that neither Hayley nor Wayne would remember ever meeting in a few years time. She took a seat on the couch, not too close to the younger but not too far._

_“You can call me that, if you want to,” she said. “Lee-ha.”_

_He replied with a nod, fondling the handle of a hammer in his hands._

“McCullough,” an officer called, raising a ring of several keys varying in size and condition and flipping to a slim silver one with visible chipping on the prongs and unlocking his cell. “Phone call.”

When Wayne tried to think of who would be calling him, and why, he drew a blank. The confusion must’ve been visible on his face, because the officer merely shrugged in response. Of course _he_ didn’t fuckin’ know who it was.

He trudged forward, following the officer. He passed several cells, some occupied and others empty, all identical in furnishings and cold stone walls. Wayne hated the prison walls. They closed in on you, at least an inch or two every night. He’d swear it on his life.

He was unsure of what rooms he was passing, though he didn’t care to ask. One wide entrance was sealed by two double doors, though Wayne was able to make out rows of gray cafeteria tables—chipped, scratched, written on, uncomfortable.

He probably wasn’t getting any mushroom pizza in there, at least.

Before he knew it, he was met with a long, periwinkle table separated by matching walls that didn’t quite touch the ceiling, separating sections of the table into booths. Chairs were pushed into each booth. Black payphones were located against the dividing walls, and the one on the far left was off the hook and set face down.

Wayne pulled out the chair and took a seat, then grabbed the phone and placed it against his face.

“Hello?”

“Wayne!” a female voice cried. It certainly wasn’t Del or his mother. “Thank god you’re okay, but what the fuck is wrong with you?! You got arrested?!”

Wayne blinked. “Who’s this?”

“It’s Leah, your cousin!”

The fair-skinned teen paused as the memory of who the hell that was came rushing back to him. He lowered his head once it did. “Oh. Hey.”

Hayley took a quick deep breath before speaking. Though her tone was quiet, she hoped it conveyed her seriousness. “Wayne, what in the world happened to you? My dad had the news on and I saw you got taken to the emergency room, and then into custody after you were in stable enough condition. I saw your mugshot and your name, what the hell am I supposed to do after seeing that, huh?”

“I thought your parents were divorced,” Wayne said, completely sidestepping the question.

“They _are,_ my stepdad is my dad. But that’s not the point!” Hayley took a moment to toss back the offending ombre-colored braids that had fallen into her face over her shoulder. Black delving into white, they fell with the others like a blanket of snow against her back. “Wayne, I thought we talked about this before. You were gonna be better than me, remember?”

Wayne shrugged despite knowing Hayley couldn’t see him. “I dunno. I guess so.”

“Yes!” Hayley exclaimed. “I told you the world didn’t need more pussies like me. They need people like you; people who don’t let their emotions screw them over. People who have what it takes to be strong and survive. I told you to be stronger than me! And now you’re committing arson, assault, stealing cars—”

“It was my dad’s car,” he interrupted.

The other line was quiet for a bit. “…He’s still fighting the cancer?”

“No. He’s dead. I burned down the house with him in it.”

Hayley didn’t miss the slight shift in Wayne’s voice as he spoke those words. It sounded as if he was steeling himself in a way, like he knew speaking that would affect him. He _was_ trying to be strong about everything.

“…Christ, I’m sorry, Wayne,” she apologized, voice softened. He didn’t need her packing on him when he was already emotionally beaten to high hell. “You wanted to keep the car in his honor?”

Green eyes roamed over the chipping paint in the wall, the nail indentations on the table. “He said it was mine. He was gonna give it to me. But some bastard stole it. We got it back, but…we got into a crash.”

Hayley’s dark eyebrows creased. “Who’s ‘we’?”

“Me and my girlfriend Del.”

“Where’s she at?”

Another shrug from Wayne. “I dunno. Her brothers and her dad hit the car and took her. I haven’t seen her since I got put in here.”

The young woman’s face twisted into one of disbelief. _What?_ What the fuck was up with this Del girl’s family? They could’ve killed either of them…

A sigh, then Hayley spoke again. “You miss her, don’t you?”

The vigilante nodded. “Yes. Yes I do.”

“…Alright. Get your stuff together. I’m gonna come get you.”

“What?”

“We can talk on the way back,” she began, shuffling in the background, followed by the jingling of keys. “You wanna see Del again or not?”


End file.
